May 2006 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

With the ANZAC Day commemorations, the first Australian soldier to die in Iraq, the final memorial service of the Port Arthur massacre and the road fatalities over the Easter holiday period we are confronted with the need to deepen our understanding of the purpose and impact of death within the sphere of that greater life in which we participate, in "the One in Whom we live and move and have our being". Facing death, we approach more closely that abiding interrelationship that transcends any immediate physical connection and through which move those powers that bring meaning and purpose to our lives.

The power of death to move us out of the limiting mediocrity of habitual daily living takes us into the transcendent realms of spiritual livingness under the wings of the Spirit of Resurrection. The deepening observance of ANZAC Day reflects this as so many speak of a spiritual dimension to the commemoration ceremonies and pilgrimages to Gallipoli and other sites of remembrance. We have felt the need to explore the nature of the basic values at the heart of our national psyche. "Mateship" has been demonstrated as a powerful sense of relationship that transcends the power of death and is deepened in our experience when death is immanent. The brotherhood of man becomes realised when Turkish, New Zealand and Australian people commemorate with mutual respect the courage and shared hardship of both sides in the Gallipoli campaign. This brotherhood outlives the horror and becomes anchored in centres of remembrance in New Zealand, Australia and around the world. It rises out of the ashes of enmity and separation.

Death in all its scope, including all the "little deaths" of daily life, eventually brings us to this rebirth into a greater life. Yet along the way we may still succumb to the ancient illusion of form life driven by fear, the fear of loss - of economic security, of loved ones, of reputation, of dignity, of respect, of personal freedom. Fear of all those losses is in essence a fear of the loss of a sense of livingness and relationship with the whole of life. This path leads only to pain and suffering. It arises from a belief in the unreal, in the exclusive power of a moment over the pervading and inexorable power of eternity. It is born out of a limited sense of identity and underlies the stress of everyday living. It generates the friction between the unreal and the real that creates the imprisonment of the soul in the illusion of form and death.

Death draws us through illusion to the ultimate door. Resurrection opens the door to an expanded sense of life. Death takes us directly to the core of an inescapable reality no matter how many layers of material living have been constructed to obscure it. The potential for expanded awareness helps us to see through the illusions built from worldly concerns and to arrive at a greater sense of proportion - "to walk humbly with (our) God". We are told: "this … is one of the most advanced injunctions in any of the world scriptures. … It has no reference to humility as usually interpreted and understood. It signifies the ability to view all life with a sense of divine proportion … It involves acceptance and comprehension of purpose, and this in such a manner that the consecrated personality … walks the ways of Earth as a channel for the three divine qualities (love, will and intelligence) but also as a channel for that which these three qualities will enable him later to sense, know and reveal." [The Rays and the Initiations, page 258]

Through long immersion in the material realm we have come to see death as an abrupt end. Yet within a greater perspective it signifies movement into new realms of life and awareness. We are told that: "In the (21st) century death and the will inevitably will be seen to have new meanings for humanity, and many of the old ideas will vanish." We are moving from an intensely individualistic and separative experience of death to an expanded understanding of its true nature. Those whose understanding is growing "…are increasingly unaware of the activities and reactions of their personalities, because certain aspects of their lower nature are now so controlled and purified that they have dropped below the threshold of consciousness and have entered the world of instinct; therefore there is no more awareness of them than a man asleep is conscious of the rhythmic functioning of his sleeping physical vehicle. This is a deep and largely unrealised truth. It is related to the entire process of death and might be regarded as one of the definitions of death; it holds the clue to the mysterious words 'the reservoir of life'. Death is in reality unconsciousness of that which may be functioning in some form or another, but in a form of which the spiritual entity is totally unaware. The reservoir of life is the place of death …" [The Rays and the Initiations, page 99 and following]

Just as the joy of birth comes after the pain and travail of the birth process so enlightenment awaits at the end of the long dark tunnel of death. The beneficence of the Spirit of Death is that it makes way for the recognition of the Spirit of Resurrection and the realisation of Life. A group member explored death and resurrection at the Easter meditation meeting: "During this century, we are told, we shall begin to learn the meaning of the word 'resurrection' and the new age will begin to reveal its deep purpose and intention. The first step will be the emergence of humanity from the death of its civilisation, of its old ideas and modes of living, the relinquishing of its materialistic goals and its damning selfishness, and its moving forward into the clear light of the resurrection," The speaker went on to explore the miracle of the resurrection of Lazarus: "… What if the stone (to the entrance of the tomb) is translated as the stone of the worldly mind which seals a soul within the grave of materialism? There are many ways in which humanity can be trapped in the materialism so easy is it to remain in the detail and chaos of our daily lives and hence dead or deaf to the world of spirit. And one of the biggest illusions of all is the belief in death. When Martha spoke to Jesus of the possible corruption and decomposition of Lazarus' body, Jesus refused to recognise decay or death, instead he saw only the light of spirit illuminating the soul of Lazarus. … It's reported that He even groaned in spirit when He went to call forth Lazarus - because His whole being entered into Lazarus. He at-oned with him - He shared Himself with him - wholly and completely - He shared Life - and thus awakened Lazarus from the state he was in - the clutches of the realms of materialism - into the realms of spirit."

All the deaths we experience release us into fuller life. All that seems to limit is the very means of our release. Every border is a gateway to something more, to transcendence and transfiguration, to knowing. As Paul wrote: "For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part will be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face; now I know in part; but then shall I know even as I also am known." [I Corinthians 14:9-12]

It is a matter of being and seeing - of identity and its scope of emanatory impact; of the point from which all things are seen and which is everywhere present; of realising that we have never left the Father's home, and that we only thought we had while riding the ark of the unfolding vision. From the poet, William Wordsworth: